Yasmin's Second Birthday
by FreakyFireflies
Summary: It's Yasmin's birthday party but as it's EastEnders not even a children's party can get away without a bit of drama  Rated T for a LITTLE bit of swearing
1. Post

**This story took me far too long to write (especially since this is only Chapter 1) but it's here now and I hope you enjoy :D x (Rated T for some slight swearing)**

Yasmin's Second Birthday

Chapter 1 – The Post

There was a clatter of pans and a slam of cutlery drawers followed by some not-so-subtle swearing. Syed forced himself to open his eyes to look at the time, wondering if he'd overslept again. Christian never woke Syed up in the morning, even if he had overslept but would then hold it against him for the rest of the day. He sat up and rubbed his eyes in an attempt to look at the clock on his bedside table. 6.45am? On a Saturday? What was Christian doing at 6.45am on a Saturday? Syed groaned, grabbed his dressing gown from the door and trudged into the kitchen, still half asleep.

'Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit'

Christian was frantically opening and closing cupboard and drawers not giving them more than a one second glance.

'Christian, what on earth are you doing? It's not even 7 o' clock yet.'

'Syed, we only have 5 hours until the party and – '

'And we went over everything last night, Christian. What's there to worry about?'

Still looking through cupboards Christian questioned Syed's organisation skills.

'What about the bouncy castle?'

'Arriving at 10.'

'The cake?'

'Arriving at 11.'

'What about – '

'Christian! You are turning into my mum!'

Christian stopped in his tracks and slowly turned around.

'What did you say?'

Syed sensed he'd hit a nerve and smiled slyly.

'I said you're turning into my mum.'

Christian suddenly realised what his husband meant and quickly closed the cupboard doors. With a blank expression on his face Christian walked towards the bedroom.

'I'm going back to bed.'

Syed simply chuckled at his victory. Comparing Christian to Zainab always worked.

9.30? Today of all days. Why 9.30? Yasmin was usually Christian and Syed's alarm, waking them up at the crack of dawn. Today she decided otherwise.

"Right, you put her in her highchair and get her bib while I grab her cereal," Christian ordered. They went through this routine every morning but with his brain still in sleep-mode Syed felt the need to double check. Everything was placed in front of her and the Dad Duo sighed simultaneously.

"Can you look after Yas while I quickly have a shower?" Christian asked.

Syed smiled to himself. "quickly." Since when did Christian shower "quickly"? He might as well prepare the entire party himself by the time Christian had finished his "quick" shower. But with no time to argue Syed casually agreed and sat down next to his daughter. Patiently waiting for Yasmin to finish her Rice Krispies, Syed attempted to sort out her bed-hair until he heard a thump and looked over to the front door.

"What was that, Yasmin?" Syed cooed. Yasmin gave a cheeky grin as she realised the answer.

"Post!" She declared.

Syed picked up the bundle of multi-coloured envelopes and plonked them down on the table next to Yasmin. Pushing her cereal away Yasmin made a vicious attempt to claw at her birthday cards. It had become a recent habit of hers; ripping up anything she could lay her hands on. Unfortunately, this meant that Christian wasn't always in the best of moods when he found his Sunday paper on the floor, a mound of confetti.

"Do you want to help then?" Syed asked, placing a butter-yellow envelope in front of her. He watched very cautiously to ensure the cards themselves didn't get ripped in the process. The first card was revealed to be a glittery giraffe with a big red 2 in the top right hand corner. Inside it read "_To my darling niece on your second birthday, have a wonderful day and I'll see you at Christmas. Lots of love, Aunty Jane xxx_" Syed smiled and left the card on the side for Christian to see. He opened the others to find a card from Shabnam and several others from distant relatives along with the odd £5 note.

Syed had opened all but one card. A pink one. A pink envelope with very familiar hand writing on. He tore open the seal and forcefully pulled the card out. It was a white card covered in masses in pink glitter with '_To a special girl' _spread out across the front. Syed knew what this meant and who it was from but every inch of him didn't want to believe it. With sincere regret he opened the card to find his assumptions where correct.

'_To Yasmin, Happy Birthday! Love from Mummy xx'_

Syed's heart filled with anger at Amira's pathetic excuse for a card. Yasmin hadn't heard anything from her mother since she left Walford nearly a year ago and this was the effort she went to to make up for it?

Glimpsing over the rim of the card he saw his desperate daughter stretching out for the card in front of him, another target for her claw-like hands. At first Syed almost pulled the card away from her like a selfish child until he saw the hurt in her eyes. Yasmin should be able to have access to any communication from her mother. Denying her that meant that he would be doing the same thing Amira did to him. He placed his hand on hers and couched down next to her, their heads in line with each other. He presented the card to her in a somewhat majestic manner allowing her to take from his hands and investigate for herself.

"It's from Mummy." Syed muttered slowly to his daughter. His words didn't seem to sink in as Yasmin continued to dust specs of glitter from her hands. Syed gently took the card away and opened it in front of her to reveal Amira's message. He read out the message again and turned to see Yasmin's reaction. Just as he had expected. Yasmin looked at him as though the word didn't exist and until the card had arrived, it didn't. Her confused expression caused many emotions to stir in Syed's heart: anger, pity, hurt, even victory was slightly touched among the bundle.

Christian's usually shower song had come to an end and Syed frantically waved the card around looking for somewhere to hide it as though it were a bomb. His husband's footsteps slowly dragged themselves into the kitchen where Christian casually stood in a beige towel.

"You alright?" Christian asked, sensing something was up with Sy.

"Err, yeah. Yeah, fine." He said with haste. "Listen, do you mind if I use the shower now?"

Christian shook his head but doubt was still on his mind. As Syed walked towards the bathroom Christian looked over to the area Syed was guarding to see the pink card sticking out like a sore thumb.

"Sy?" Syed slightly stumbled in his tracks, cursing under his breath.

"Yeah?"

Words need not be said as the card was raised in front of their faces. Syed glanced at the card then back at Christian. Memories reflected between their eyes as they remembered the woman that had stood in the way of everything they have now. As the memories became stronger so did Syed's guilt. But the flashbacks were torn when Christian set down the card next to the others and the guilt was lowered as his husband wrapped his hands around his waist.

"She isn't going to take this away. Not again."

**The actual party will come soon! Give me some time and I'll get it on here as soon as possible. Hope you enjoyed it. Please R it would be very much appreciated :D**


	2. Party Games

**First of all I am so sorry I haven't been updating – stupid exams keep getting in the way! BUT hopefully a longer chapter will make up for it. I had loads of fun writing this one! Please tell me what you think. Thanks :D**

Chapter 2 - Party Games

"What did you do? Invite the whole bloody square round?" Syed shouted over the nursery rhymes playing on speakers, children screeching as they chased each other and the murmurs of adults gossiping over the many recent events of Albert Square.

"Maybe..." Syed managed to hear. Before he could argue any further his mother stepped in front of him looking slightly disturbed by the hectic surroundings.

"So when are the party games?"

Syed and Christian both glared at her with utter confusion.

"Party games?" Christian said. "Who said anything about party games?"

"Honestly you two. You can't expect to have a children's party without party games."

"Zainab, most of the kids here are either too young, i.e. Yasmin and Kamil. Or too old; Lucy and Abi"

"Well, what about Shenice and Tiffany?" Zainab stated strongly watching the two girls chase each other past them.

"Tiff, Shenice!" Christian called as they obediently made their way over. "Do you want to play Pin-The-Tail-On-The-Donkey?" He said blandly.

"No way! That's for babies." Tiffany whined with a disgusted look on her face as if someone had just spat at her. Their response was all the evidence he needed.

"I was only trying to help," Syed's mother insisted and she battled her way back over to Masood and Kamil.

"Nicely handled," his husband said sarcastically. Christian looked insulted at this comment.

"As if you wanted to spend an hour trying to get a bunch of kids to cooperate and be involved in a stupid game that would only end in one very sore winner and ten sore losers. If that's the sort of thing you want to do then go ahead, but I have a better idea."

Just before Syed could ask any more about this idea a pair of little hands wrapped around his legs. He looked down only to find his daughter completely drenched.

"Look at you! I take it you've been playing in the paddling pool."

"Pool. Pool!"

Syed cautiously scooped Yasmin up and held her away at arms length and started making his way into the kitchen; her dark blue denim dungarees had absorbed about half of the paddling pool. Christian had chosen the dungarees...well, technically, Yasmin did.

They'd been walking through the shopping centre buying banners and balloons when she'd reached out at the window, whining and moaning at her failed attempts to grasp the item of clothing. Both dads slowly made their way towards the window and saw the casual denim dungarees hugging a white manikin. Nothing about it was girly. No sparkles, no sequins, no flowers, no hearts. Just some plain dungarees. It's easy to imagine the pure delight in Christian and Syed's hearts to witness their daughter go against any fully feminine fashion that her mother had chosen, despite being only two.

Before Syed could remove her sopping clothes Christian stepped in with two buckets of water.

"Don't bother getting her changed, might as well keep her like that."

"Christian, she can hardly walk." Syed replied watching his daughter make vicious attempts at undoing the straps.

"Trust me."

Christian raced off into the garden with the buckets, leaving a trail clumsy spillages. Syed watched Christian dart in and out of the kitchen carrying several bags that Syed had struggled to see the contents of. When his husband failed to come back into the kitchen Syed followed him back out into the garden praying that Christian wasn't going to do anything stupid.

"Can I have everyone's attention?" Christian announced, turning down the music. All eyes turned to him including Tiffany and Shenice who were hoping it was time for cake.

"Sorry to interrupt the fun but I was just asked by Zainab about party games."

Extremely unsubtle groans came from the majority of children (and adults).

"Now, now," Christian hushed. "I'm not suggesting we sit around and play a game of Pass-The –Parcel. So instead I came up with another game."

Christian's suspense had led all the kids forward as they wanted to discover more about this mysterious game.

"It's called...EVERYONE GRAB A WATER GUN AND SHOOT AT ZAINAB!"

Screams and cries of all the children burst towards them as they all scurried to grab a sponge, bucket, water gun, whatever they could find and ran towards Zainab. Syed couldn't help but be in hysterics as he watched his helpless mother scream in protest as it rained down on her. Even Yasmin had grabbed a sponge and stumbled over to her grandmother. The music had been blasted back on and practically every member of the Square had grabbed a gun and were now at war with one another. Syed picked up his own gun, filled it with ammo and walked over to his husband.

"Ahem."

Christian stupidly turned to him and was blasted in the face before he could even see who it was. He rubbed the water away from his eyes and squinted at Syed.

"Oh that's it!"

Syed made a girlish scream and darted away from Christian as he picked up the bucket opposite. Just before Christian could be revenged on his husband the atmosphere was broken by a screech coming from the corner of the garden.

"STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!" Everyone turned to see young children parting away from a woman who had been soaked over every inch of her body.

Zainab made eye contact with Christian and slowly dragged herself and her drenched clothes over to him. Something told him she didn't really like this game. She was now standing so close Christian could feel her annoyed breath on his face. The eye contact still wasn't broken as Zainab reached for the red bucket in Christian's left hand. Levels of anticipation were nearly too much to handle as she slowly raised the bucket above his head. Undoubtedly, she turned her hands and litres of cold water rushed down his head and neck. Her expression was still unreadable until a small smirk spread across her face, and then slowly turning into a giggle, then a chuckle, then a laugh. She carried on until she could no longer contain herself from laughing at the petrified look on Christian's face. The air was filled with intense sighs of relief as everyone joined her in fits of laughter.

The party was quickly back together as Zainab reached over for another bucket and ran over to Masood. Children ran amuck in their garden, some even spreading out to the Square itself. Forts had been built and teams were made (boys against girls). All of their guests had flooded out into the Square creating one of the biggest events in Walford, leaving behind Christian, Syed and Yasmin.

Syed enthusiastically picked Yasmin up and clutched her in his arms and leant himself against Christian.

"You are a genius."

**So how did I do? Did I succeed? **

**Trouble is I don't know where to go from here. Should I do another chapter? Should I do a different story? Give me ideas people!**

**Thanks for reading, R & R would be amazing!**


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